Quick and Easy Elderberry Syrup

Elderberry is a great syrup to have on hand. It has a pleasant taste, and is traditionally used to support the immune system during cold and flu season. July isn't exactly cold and flu season, but fresh elderberries will be ripening soon, so this is the time of year to start thinking about making syrup.

If you have access to fresh elderberries, you can usually boil them down with only a little extra water and the end result will be a very strong juice that makes an excellent syrup. If you only have dried berries, though, the process is a little different. I chose to use dried berries because they are very inexpensive and easily available, and they still make a very nice syrup. 

Elderberry syrup can be enjoyed by the spoonful or stirred into a glass of sparkling water, or as a flavored syrup on pancakes, ice cream or whatever strikes your fancy. 

Ingredients:
1/4 cup dried elderberries
1 cup distilled water
1 cup honey (preferably raw)

Supplies:
Non reactive saucepan with lid
Fine mesh strainer
Large glass measuring cup
Glass Jar
Metal Spoon

Place elderberries and water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover with lid and let stand for ten minutes.

Place mesh stainer over the large glass measuring cup and pour berries and juice into the strainer. Use the back of the spoon to press berries against the strainer until most of the juice has been removed and the berries are mostly dry. Discard the mashed berries, and return the juice to the saucepan.

Add the honey to the juice and return the pan to low heat. Stir constantly until the honey and juice are completely mixed. This doesn't take long, only about 30 seconds or so.

Pour into the glass jar and cap tightly, label and date. Store in the refrigerator.

According to Richo Cech in his book Making Plant Medicine, an herbal syrup made with these proportions (1 part by volume of strong herbal decoction or infusion to 2 parts by volume of Honey) can have an expected shelf life of one year if sterilized glass jars are used.

My syrup yielded about 10 oz for less than $5.00. I found twelve ounces of local honey for around four dollars at a farmer's market, and found four ounces of dried elderberries online for $3.50. The bag of elderberries I bought had about two cups worth of dried berries to play with, so I still have enough berries for three more batches of syrup.

To compare, leading brands of elderberry syrup at my neighborhood health food store can cost as much as $20 for 3oz! 

Bulk Herbs for Herbal Living on a Budget

So, after last week’s post, which talks about the first tip on the list in the Eight Tips for Herbal Living on A Budget post, now you have a list, or at least a general idea, of what herbs interest you the most. You may be wondering about purchasing the herbs on your list, and trying to decide which form makes the most sense to buy. This week, we will skip ahead to number four from the Eight Tips list, and talk about the benefits of using bulk herbs to make your own herbal preparations. Whether you make or purchase your herbal products, the most common options are capsules, teas, and extracts, so those are the forms we will cover in this post.

The first option on our list is capsules. Capsules are definitely one of the most convenient forms of pre-made herbal products, but they are one of the least convenient forms if you are filling them by hand. Some herbalists prefer teas and extracts because they feel that these forms are easier for the body to digest, but if you don’t want to taste your herbs capsules may be your best bet. Capsule filling tools, which make the job much easier, can be purchased starting at $15.00 or so, and empty capsules start at around $3.50 for 100 capsules. For comparison, a store bought bottle of herbal capsules is going to cost between $5 and $10 on the lower end of the price scale.

Next on the list, teas are very simple and inexpensive to make, and if you have access to a bulk herb supplier that allow you to select small quantities at a time, they really won’t take up more space than a box of pre-made tea bags. But, if you are ordering bulk herbs online, you may only be able to order in three or four ounce quantities. A tea blend can take up a good bit of space by the time you order three or four herbs if you can only purchase multiple ounces of each at a time. This is less of a problem if you love to drink tea, or if you also make extracts out of your left over tea making supplies. Boxes of herbal tea start at around $5 for sixteen tea bags and contain less than an ounce of herbs, while bulk herbs average a dollar an ounce for most common herbs.

The third option is buying or making extracts. Making homemade herbal extracts is a trade off in time and space vs. money. The drawback to making your own extracts is that it takes time (at least two weeks) and more space (for storing bulk herbs, the larger jars to make the extract in, and keeping alcohol on hand). Not a lot of space, but definitely more space than a few one ounce bottles of extract. On the other hand, there’s a favorable difference in cost between homemade and pre-made. To give you an idea, I generally buy a twenty dollar bottle of vodka, which is roughly sixty ounces, and herbs at roughly a dollar an ounce give or take. So, at one ounce of herbs to five ounces of liquid (the usual ratio), homemade comes to less than $1.50 an ounce. You can expect to pay at least $10 at the store for an ounce of pre-made extract.

Buying in bulk and taking the DIY approach can have significant cost benefit and save substantial amounts of money. If you are concerned about budget, buying herbs in bulk and making your own capsules, teas and extracts is definitely the way to go.

Stay tuned next week for another look at the Eight Tips for Herbal Living series! 

So Many Herbs. . .

Hundreds of plants fill the pages of herbal books and supply catalogs, and the amount of information can be exciting and overwhelming. It is better to know a lot about a few herbs than to know a little about many, but how does an aspiring home herbalist choose which herbs to learn about first?  How should a home herbalist decide which herbs to grow or purchase for personal and family use? Making a single list for both purposes works surprisingly well.

A list of herbs should be based around the interest of the herbalist, but it is helpful to decide on a general topic. Considering herbs by geographic location or tradition can be easy ways to come up with a list. Geography can be general (rainforest herbs, desert herbs, forest herbs) or related to country, or the list could be focused on herbs that are native to the area in which the herbalist lives. Herbal traditions to consider include Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese, Unani, or Native American. 

Then again, the list could be based on clustering the herbs around traditional uses. To use this approach, select herbs which were used traditionally to support the heart, the lungs, the digestive tract, or other organ systems. An aspiring herbalist could also focus on herbs which have traditionally been used as support for any health challenges they might be facing personally.

 After a guiding topic for the list is decided upon, the list itself can be made from the herbs discovered in the initial research. The list doesn’t have to be long or complicated. For example, focusing on one to three herbs at a time from a longer list of twelve keeps all the information from running together, but also gives the herbalist a long term study goal.  

Once some time has been devoted to studying the herbs on the list, it will be easier to decide which ones to grow or purchase for personal and family use. Research information related to safety when studying each herb, such as potential toxicity, interactions with medications or health conditions, and how to correctly identify the herb. If an herb doesn’t seem like a good fit based on safety data, consider excluding it from purchase. Also, find out if the herb is commonly cultivated or is facing pressure from over harvesting. Make sure the herb is available from sources that cultivate the herb themselves, or work closely with their growers to guarantee that herbs are ethically harvested. If it isn’t available from reputable sources, seek out an alternative herb.

Remember, knowing a few herbs really well (including how to identify them by sight, what they taste and smell like, any interactions they could have with prescription or over the counter medication) and being able to turn to them with confidence is much better than having a vague idea or an inkling about dozens of herbs, for practical as well as safety reasons. Developing a single list of herbs to study and purchase can help aspiring herbalists focus on using herbs safely at home. So, do some reading, make a list, and have fun!

Eight Tips for Herbal Living on a Budget

A few well chosen herbs, tools, and resources can be surprisingly versatile. Here are eight things that I do around the house that keep us happily in herbs, without needing to invest a lot of money into supplies. But be warned: I have found an herbal lifestyle to be habit forming! It's hard not to get hooked when you can feel great for so little. . .

1.    Focus on a few herbs. Make an herbal wish list of ten or fifteen herbs that you want to learn about and/or keep on hand. 

2.    Shop at discount stores or thrift stores for any tools and kitchenware you need for dedicated herbal purposes.  

3.    Drink herbal teas. Herbal teas come in so many wonderful varieties, and they are surprisingly economical. 

4.    Use bulk quantity herbs to make your own teas and extracts- bulk quantities are usually cheaper, and making your own teas and extracts is much less expensive than store bought.

5.    Dedicate a shelf or cabinet for your herbs, and keep an inventory list so you don’t make duplicate purchases.

6.    Use the public library and/or be selective about which books you purchase. At the very least, look for a book that gives detailed information on many different herbs as your main reference book. Then, add to your personal collection over time. Detailed guides to making herbal preparations, books about traditional herbal theory, and even gardening handbooks are other examples of useful reference books that can be added as you go along. 

7.    Grow your own herbs. Some herbs even do well in extra small spaces like patio containers.

8.   Use the plants around you. Learn to identify wild plants (and weeds!) and how to care for and harvest them responsibly. 

 I will probably be revisiting each tip in a post of its own, but I hope that gives you some useful ideas to play with in the meantime. Happy Simpling! Agatha